Ron Paul said this afternoon that he would put an end to the country’s “exploding” national debt if elected president.

The GOP candidate addressed a crowd of more than 200 in Cedar Falls — one of five whistle-stop tours on the congressman’s calendar today.

“We need to audit the Federal Reserve and we need to get control over it,” Paul said. “Especially in these last four years, there’s been a lot of printing of money going on and the debt is exploding.”

The U.S. currently owes more than $15 trillion dollars, and in recent years, that number has increased by as much as $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion annually, Paul said.

“All our so-called prosperity is based on debt, and that’s what the financial markets are telling us,” said the 76-year-old. “We have promised to bail out everybody and anybody, not only here at home with the banks and corporations … but the foreign banks, too.”

Paul has promised to cut $1 trillion in spending during the first year of his presidency.

The proposal would include the elimination of the federal departments of energy, housing and urban development, commerce, interior and education. It also calls for an end to all foreign wars and foreign aid programs, and would return all other spending to 2006 levels.

Those proposals would dramatically change the face of the U.S. economy, said supporter Julia Sents of Wellsburg, Iowa.

“I think his economic plans will make a huge impact on my kids, and, quite frankly, me,” said the 27-year-old mother of three, who attended Paul’s Cedar Falls rally. “I’d like to buy a house right now, but there’s absolutely no way I can afford it. And if I can’t afford it, they’re not even going to come close.”